Decatur County Sheriff Burt Muir told KCCI that Ryan Fulkerson, 25, of Decatur City, was found in a ditch by a farmer about a mile north of Decatur City on Sunday at 10 a.m. on May 12. He was found along a rural gravel road.

Fulkerson was unconscious, and appeared to have been beaten, Muir said. An air ambulance helicopter was called to the scene, but couldn't fly due to weather so he was taken by ambulance to a Des Moines hospital.

Muir said Fulkerson was charged with stealing cattle and trying to sell them in Illinois. He bonded out of the Decatur County Jail four weeks ago.

Illinois authorities picked him up for the attempted sale of the cows.

Mercy Medical Center officials confirmed that Fulkerson died over the weekend.

Muir said he does not believe the beating and subsequent death of Fulkerson, a father of twin girls, was any type of retribution by the owners of the cattle.

"I believe this is going to get solved. How quick, I'm not sure, but it's going to get solved," said Muir.

A 25-year-old Decatur City man has died after being severely beaten and left for dead in a ditch last week. Mark Tauscheck is just back from Decatur City and joins us LIVE from the newsroom. The Sheriff in Decatur County says at first they didn't know if Ryan Fulkerson had been beaten up or hit by a car...but when he died this weekend they opened a homicide case. Fulkerson was found in this ditch just north of where he lived in Decatur City...he was taken to Des Moines where he was treated for several days but he passed away over the weekend... Investigators are trying to figure out why this father of twin girls was targeted... He had recently been arrested for stealing 14 head of cattle from a local farmer...and selling them at a cattle auction in Illinois...he was found unconscious in the ditch approximately 10 days after he was released from a jail in Illinois...but authorities don't believe this was vigilante justice in retaliation for the cattle. 14:32-"I BELIEVE THIS IS GOING TO GET SOLVED - HOW QUICK I'M NOT SURE BUT IT'S GOING TO GET SOLVED." The sheriff says he's confident because deputies have talked to a lot of people and are getting a lot of leads... ..and DCI agents arrived in Leon this afternoon to help with the investigation. Mark, you'll have more at six...?

Nearly 40 years after receiving a life sentence for his role in the largest mass abduction in U.S. history, James Schoenfeld -- one of the three infamous Chowchilla school bus kidnappers -- will walk out of a California prison this week a free man.